Re: Rouge Brutal Bitter

I recognized that pic right away Jeff... So after looking at that link you gave I rememered right away that me and Stacy have tried the chocolate stout about a year ago while in Atlantic City. From what I remember it was very good; nice and thick n' rich... And flavorful as hell!

Re: Rogue XS Imperial Stout

Yesterday, Stacy and I made a rather large beer purchase; 4 different breweries and about 15 different kinds of brews between them. Tonight we opened a bottle of Rogue XS Imperial Stout and split it. First off, this stuff is DARK! I mean it looks pure black pouring out of the bottle. It is extremely thick and creamy. There is a bit of bitterness up front that leads way to heavy coffee notes with a bit chocolate in the background. Not being used to this type of brew I was a bit taken by it, but all in all I did like it. It finished rather clean without leaving a heavy 'burnt hop' flavor in my mouth.

I've got 5 other types of Rogue brews to still sample so I'll drop a quick post here as I try them over the coming days...

One thing I found interesting with all the Rogue brews is that they do not tell you their % alcohol... I know most beers do not (Light beers must but regular brews don't have to) but they give you other 'off' info on the bottle instead such as degrees plato, IBU (international bitterness unit), AA (?), and degrees L (again ?). With all that, the % alcohol would be a nice 'to know' thing as well.

Re: Rogue XS Imperial Stout

The bottle in the pic is the 12 ouncer... All 6 bottles I got were 12 oz.'s, except for a bottle of Half E Weizen. It's a 22oz since thats all it comes in besides draft. And yes, it was aged over a year as the site says it is best when aged over a year. (There's a bottled year on the bottle)

Re: Rogue XS Imperial Stout

Imperial Stouts are very strong (for beer), about 10-12% abv generally although some go lower. Sam Smith's Imperial Stout runs about 8% abv but that is an exception. The taste is unique even for stout because often there is brettonmyeces (wild yeast, so-called horseblanket) influence in the brew. Traditionally this came from microflora long resident in the wooden barrels in which it was aged. Not all such stout is aged in wood today but many brewers manage to convey the traditional palate nonetheless in various ways. Stout and porters are my favourite beer style. Imperial Stout or Russian Stout, refers in either case to very strong stout shipped from England to cold Imperial Russia from the 1700's until the end end of the 1800's. Rogue's version is very good, very close to the English original in my opinion. I once had it on draft at the Blue Tusk in Syracuse when Rogue was doing a promotion there. Rogue's beers, made by famed brewer John Maier in the North West (Oregon I think), are very high in quality. One must always allow for their particular, often high strength and in the case of the Imperial Stout each bottle effectively is the equivalent of 2-3 regular beers depending how you compute it. Victory of Donnington, PA is another high quality craft brewer and I've got two samples of its Imperial stout I've been meaning to try. Your notes have encouraged me to crack one, Mark, so I'll post some tasting notes later this week to compare to yours. Michael Jackson, who now writes mostly on whisky but made his reputation writing about beer, describes the tastes of such beers using words like, "burnt currants on a Christmas cake"!

Re: Rogue XS Imperial Stout

Thanks for the great info Gary, I look forward to hearing your impressions of it as well. I'll admit, you get a taste of something 'burnt' in it, but it is expected with such a dark and rich beer like this. To me, it was nice actually, because as I put it off to one (or more) of the ingredients being fire roasted or near burnt... I wouldn't go as far as to say "burnt currants on a Christmas cake"!

Re: Rogue XS Imperial Stout

Jackson said that, Mark, of Courage's Imperial Russian Stout, sadly no longer made. However some other stouts of this style do get that burned taste. It comes I think from highly roasted malts. The mashbills for these beers can be complex but they always (as for most stout) contain a measure of malt literally scorched when it is dried. The Christmas cake in Michael's example came from the estery fruity flavour that beer also had. I don't recall either that Rogue's version has a fruity taste but I recall well its "horseblanket" nose and flavour. Of course samples may vary. Other good Imperial Stouts in the U.S. include Old Rasputin, made by Russian River, a long-established West Coast micro. Perkumo's Hammer is also very good, made in New Jersey. Some East European countries, where the style took hold long ago, make their own versions and export them to the U.S. At 8th and 42nd street (next to McHale's bar) is a grocery store in Manhattan that has all these and many more. Some are from Lithuania, some Latvia, most are very good.

I find Imperial Russian Stout (although I like tasting many kinds of beer) has the complexity and uniqueness to be discussed in a context of fine whiskey or fine wine: it doesn't taste like any of those but on its own terms is as good. We have discussed here before that sometimes bourbon is added to this style of beer, Chuck has mentioned Goose Island's version and there are others: this provides a further, more direct connection bewteen two great drinks.

Re: Rogue XS Imperial Stout

Bourbon is "added" to bourbon barrel stout, so far as I know, only in the sense that it is conditioned in bourbon barrels. Especially on a first refill, a significant amount of bourbon will come out of the barrel, so bourbon is "added" in that sense.

By way of evidence, I offer the traditional Kentucky practice of "sweating" a barrel. A couple gallons of water is poured into a bourbon barrel and the barrel is then rolled around to expose the water to as much of the internal surface as possible. A pretty stiff drink can be obtained in this manner.